Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Big Bore Newbi

Hey guys this is my first post but I am not new to the world of guns. My question is, I have a 7RM, 300 wsm, 300 win mag and a 450 BLR what would be a good legitimate 200 yard big bore to go with meaning I can hit 300 yard 10 inch clangers all day with my 450 but its not practical.

I think you might like the .375 H&H. I shoot mine beyond 200 yards regularly. Took a muley buck with it @ 350+ yards.

The .375 Ruger on the Hawkeye platform would be another good one. Doesn't take a whole lot of dollars to get into.

Two hundred yard cartridges in .375 bores would include:

375 H&H Magnum
375 Weatherby Magnum
375 RUM
378 Weatherby Magnum

Actually, it's not that hard to do 200 yards with a good big bore. Bullet drop will be greater but accuracy should be fine, assuming absence of flinch, with:

458 Winchester Magnum
458 Lott
460 Weatherby Magnum

I have an encore platform and have shot the 375 H&H on it before I didn't notice the kick but it was only 2 shots. Would it be worth it to look at a barrel for that or go to a bolt gun.

I have had an Encore 375 H&H rifle barrel and took several animals with it including a Zebra at about 200 yards. I no longer have an Encore 375 H&H Magnum rifle barrel but I shoot a 13 inch braked MGM barrel on my Encore chambered for that cartridge that does very well (i.e., sub MOA 3 shot groups out to 200 yards).

In the rifle configuration with the Encore you have to be very careful with heavy recoiling cartridges or you'll get a scope bite. It has to do with the Encore stock configuration. The solution would be a scope with good eye relief, a custom made stock with a longer LOP and/or a muzzle brake.

I still have a bolt action 375 H&H Magnum rifle and with the stock configuration on that one, I've had no scope bite problems. Actually, I also have bolt action rifles in 378 Weatherby Magnum (a Weatherby) and a 458 Lott (a CZ 550) and haven't had scope bite tendencies in those either.

Play with the encore with a 375 rifle barrel for a while to get used to shooting something a bit bigger. A 458 is also a good choice, as recoil is moderate.

The 378 Wby, 458 Lott, 460 Wby are not a lot of fun at the range over an afternoon.

A 416 Ruger is a good compromise round, but it will kick like a 416 Rigby, and that is a big step up from a 375 H&H/Ruger.

HLL! They're all fun!

I got to shoot a pretty light 416 Remington Magnum not too long ago. The gunsmith that built it has a theorey that a light rifle has a faster recoil that is less offensive than the recoil in a heavier rifle. He may be on to something since it really wasn't that bad; about the equal of my 375 H&H Magnum.

And let us not forget the .375 Ruger

Well I wll put the extension rings that slide the scope forward a little bit. I am sure that I can handle it andI love when I can hammer targets and animals with guns that you can make people say why so big. Plus me being a big guy 6'5 285 pounds I don't think recoil will overcome me.

Will the encore rifle me MOA accurate with it or not?

With my Encore rifle I got 1 to 1.5 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yards with 270 gr. Speer soft nosed boat tailed bullets. If I had played around with it more I may have been able to do better after all, if an Encore handgun can do less than 1 MOA an Encore rifle should be able to as well.

And yes, I forgot the 375 Ruger. When you check the availability and price of brass for that cartridge as I did, you may forget it as well.

I got sub MOA accuracy with my CZ 550 in 375 H&H shooting 250g Swift A-Frames at 2800 fps. It was a mild recoiling load and probably more than enough oomph for anything in North America. Sighted in 3" high at 100 yards, it's dead on at 250 and 4" low at 300 yards never rising more than 3.7" above line of sight. It still has 2600 ft/lbs of energy at 300 yards. My 15 year old son who weighed 130 lbs at the time enjoyed shooting it offhand. My CZ weighed about 10.5 lbs with scope so it was on the heavy side.



Chuck

Agree about the .375's - my H&H Ruger Number One impressed me at the range. Sighted in at 200 yards, I have no trouble whacking the 300 yard gong time after time using 260 gr Noslers or 270 gr Hornady bullets. Took it bear hunting in September and made a clean one-shot kill on a black bear at a bit over 300 yards. No problem. The .375's will reach out for sure.

Regards, Guy

I am hoping it will reach out there and touch them, I shot a deer one year at less than 5 yards with my 450 and i liked that reaction so I am thinking that a 375 at 100 yards should flop them pretty hard is well.

What bullet then ya'll I am looking at either the 235 grain barnes or the 260 accubond, which one for elk and whitetail....

And what scope mounts would ya'll recommend for the encore, thinking I am going to go with leupold rings.... or is there something better?

Just a side note- if you plan on going out of country with it .375 H&H is fairly easy to find if you needed it.

Zeroed at 250 yds, most any big bore that can generate 2400-2500 fps with bullets of 1/2 decent sd will give you fairly flat trajectory to 300 yds. As far as accuracy, again most of them will have little problem consistantly hitting a 10" target at 300 yds, I'd expect most to be able to hold that accuracy to 500 yds.

375 H&H, 416 rem mag, 458 win mag w/ 350 gr bullets, any of them should work.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=203905776

..............Well that`s interesting! I don`t know where you looked, but I find that the brass prices are very close with each other.

When I look on the Midway site, I find that a 50 count of 375 H&H Hornady brass lists at $47.99, while the 375 Ruger Hornady brass lists at $42.99 for a 50 count. Not all that much of a difference in factory ammo either.

And when anyone takes into account all the costs for rifles, scopes, apparel, hunting expenses, travel expenses and other misc expenses, any differences in brass costs between the 375 H&H and the 375 Ruger is extremely trivial at best.

I can't get a ruger on the encore platform though ya'll